We value... - Week #3

If God answered all our prayers, for many of us the only people impacted would be us and our families. It is easy to just pray safe, small prayers that don't involve any risk or sacrifice.

However, when we look at the early church, they prayed and lived very differently. In Acts 4 & 5, the church leaders were faced with persecution, yet they prayed for more boldness knowing they could be harmed along the way. Even when they were severely beaten or killed, the early Christians continued to live out and pray a bold faith.

To accomplish our mission & vision, we have to value...God-sized goals that might involve risk & sacrifice. One way to verify if the goal is large enough is to ask "Is this something we could achieve on our own or only with God's help?"

These type of goals might involve risk & sacrifice, but safe and comfortable was not the way Jesus came to live. We have been entrusted with the most important message of new life, and we can't become trapped by small meaningless goals.

We value... - Week #2

What determines how God views you?  Is it your behavior, your church attendance, your prayers?  Behavior is so important in life that sometimes we project that onto God.

However, God's love for everyone is not based behavior, performance, or under any conditions.  He loves us in spite of those things.  Jesus constantly taught & lived this out.  One particularly powerful instance happened in Luke 15 when He had 2 completely different groups of people together.  He was able to teach both the law-keepers and law-breakers that their behavior didn't impact God's view of them - Jesus did everything!

In this parable, we see through Jesus that God values people regardless of what they have done.  We should value unchurched people as much as churched people.

We value... - Week #1

While our mission is "to help people take a next step to follow Jesus" and our vision is "to create churches for more than church people", how do we get there and make that happen?

There is a strong connection between what organizations do and what they value.  Values are important to an organization because we do what we value and we value what we do.

Jesus lived out many values, but in John 8:1-11 He shows us one of the most important values of His time on Earth.  The way Jesus showed the religious leaders and sinners His value for people was fairly remarkable.  He showed everyone that God values people above everything.  Therefore, we should value people above everything.

What gets in the way of you valuing people above everything?

New Series begins this Sunday

...lots of things - identity, ourselves, traditions, people, etc.  What we value as a church matters just like it does individually.  Many times we don't realize what we really value until we have to make a difficult decision.  Join us starting This Sunday as we discuss our church values and how we can ensure we really value them.

Mother's Day - Comparison Trap

Comparing is something most of us begin doing at an early age.  We compare to see if we measure up, are ok, and fit in.  The problem is that there is no finish line to these comparisons; they could go on forever.  There  will always be someone nicer, better, and with more.

Add to this the fact that many of us also compare our spouses, kids, families, and friends to other people's spouses, kids, families, and friends where we drive ourselves and these people crazy!

Should we just fold our hands and sit on the sideline of life so we don't compare ourselves?  King Solomon actually speaks to this in Ecclesiastes 4:4-8, and he offers us maybe the most powerful advice in verse 6.

Solomon says it is better to grab all we can with one hand and keep one hand open than to use both hands to grab all we can.  When we keep one hand open, we allow God to place in it and take out what He wants.  One hand open allows us to have peace, tranquility, and trust in God.  Both hands closed results in stress & no peace.  It also means there is something you can't grab, while you hold on to things God may want to take from you.

Control

We are all controlled by something or someone.  Paul says that Christ's love should control the Christian.  God worked through Jesus to reconcile the whole world to Him.  For that reason we should not live just for ourselves anymore but for God.

As a church this is important to determine what drives us or controls us.  Here are the 3 applications Pastor Chris mentioned to allow Christ's love to control us:

1. be ready for changes
2. be praying for unchurched people
3. be at church 5/15 as we start our values series "Jesus & We".